MacShane, who resigned as MP for Rotherham in 2012, has always maintained that he did not personally profit from the claims and he has repaid the money.

However, the Commons authorities said MacShane's deceit was the "gravest" it had come across since the parliamentary expenses scandal broke in 2009.

Police re-opened their inquiry in November 2012 after new evidence came to light.

The long-standing principle of parliamentary privilege meant detectives were not originally given access to correspondence with the standards commissioner in which MacShane described how signatures on receipts from the European Policy Institute (EPI) had been faked.

The EPI was controlled by MacShane and the general manager's signature was not genuine. One letter, dated October 2009, described how he drew funds from the EPI so he could serve on a book judging panel in Paris.

Four MPs and two peers have been sent to prison as a result of the expenses revelations from 2009. One further MP, Labour's Margaret Moran was given a supervision order instead after suffering mental health problems.